Headed to Jack's Old Stomping Grounds

Coloradans Caine Fitzgerald and Brian Guetz qualify in CO Springs for their first U.S. Senior Open; 4-time PGA Tour winner Notah Begay and fellow former Tour pro Brad Lardon join them in advancing

By Gary Baines

COLORADO SPRINGS — About two miles from where World Golf Hall of Famer Padraig Harrington raised the U.S. Senior Open trophy in triumph about 11 months ago, 41 golfers took aim Wednesday at spots in the 2026 USSO, which will be played on the course where Jack Nicklaus grew up, Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio.

Of course, Nicklaus won his second and final U.S. Senior Open at Cherry Hills Country Club south of Denver in 1993. And Colorado Sports Hall of Famer Dale Douglass won his U.S. Senior Open in 1986 at Scioto.

With those local connections at play on Wednesday, two Coloradans qualified for the 2026 national championship, in addition to a four-time PGA Tour winner who played in the ’25 USSO at The Broadmoor, and another former Tour player who teed it up in the last Senior Open Scioto CC hoste.

Specifically, making the grade in final qualifying on Wednesday were Colorado PGA professional Caine Fitzgerald of Parker (medalist at 2-under-par 69), amateur Brian Guetz of Columbine Valley (71), Notah Begay III of Albuquerque, a longtime TV golf analyst who has raised PGA Tour championship trophies four times in his career (71), and fellow New Mexican Brad Lardon, a Santa Fe resident who made 106 career starts on the PGA Tour (72).

Barring the unforeseen, all four will be among 156 players who tee it up at Scioto July 2-5 in one of the PGA Tour Champions’ majors.

Caine Fitzgerald, who would go on to earn medalist honors, was all smiles after a birdie on the ninth hole Wednesday.

As Lardon said, “It feels fricking awesome. And it’s a major.”

Even though Begay has competed in 217 PGA Tour events and won four — and has played in three previous U.S. Senior Opens — earning a spot in another one was hardly just some run-of-the-mill steppingstone for him.

“USGA events are the most special because they’re the most democratic events we have,” said the 53-year-old, who was a college teammate of Tiger Woods at Stanford. “Anybody that has a qualifying handicap can sign up, and you always hear great stories. But somebody had the day of their life (competing in the national championship), and they’re playing with their heroes. And I think that is kind of the most unique and attractive feature about the U.S. Open (or Senior Open) championship. … Like here, an amateur is going to get through (Guetz); that’s cool.”

While Begay will be going to his fourth U.S. Senior Open — he made the cut and finished 64th last year at The Broadmoor — and so will Lardon (though his first since 2019), it will be the first USSO for each of the Coloradans, Fitzgerald and Guetz. In fact, it will be the first USGA championship of any sort for Fitzgerald, the PGA head professional at Meadow Hills Golf Course in Aurora.

“It’s pretty incredible,” said Fitzgerald, the Colorado PGA Professional Champion in 2012 and the Section’s senior champ last year. “I never imagined it — I played in the 2013 PGA (Championship) and just figured that was a ‘one and done,’ so this is a pretty cool opportunity.”

Brian Guetz, winner of two Colorado Open titles, closes out his round with a par.

Guetz, who has the distinction of winning the Colorado Open twice (once each as an amateur and a pro), will be competing in his first USGA championship in 30 years. This year marked the first time the soon-to-be-52-year-old has tried to qualify for the U.S. Senior Open.

“Anytime you can participate in a USGA event — I don’t care if it’s amateur or professional — it’s one of the pinnacles of golf and something that you aspire to do,” Guetz said. “So this feels great.”

While Guetz caddied for his brother Bret at the 2003 U.S. Open, this will be just Brian’s second USGA championship as a competitor, as he played in the 1996 U.S. Amateur.

“I don’t have a resumé of USGA events so anytime you can play in one it’s an amazing opportunity,” he said.

Notah Begay III is headed for his fourth straight U.S. Senior Open.

Asked to compare qualifying for a U.S. Senior Open as an amateur to winning a couple of Colorado Opens, Guetz said, “It’s such a different phase of life. If you get out a couple days a week to hit balls or practice (now), that’s great. As opposed to doing it full time and it’s a job. It’s fun to be able to still compete. Winning a Colorado Open as an amateur is kind of a cool thing because it’s only been done (twice, the other time by Gary Longfellow), so a little bit historic. And I’m the only guy to win it as an amateur and a professional, so that’s a big feather in my cap.

“But something like this, qualifying over two stages on very good golf courses against very good competition, is definitely up there as far as an accomplishment,” added Guetz, who now owns car washes along with brother Bret. “But I’m looking forward to this in a different way. I’ll probably take my (18-year-old son, Brody). It’ll be a fun experience to share with him.”

Regarding Wednesday’s 41-man field, it was indeed strong. It featured at least five players who have competed in more than 100 PGA Tour events — Begay, Chris DiMarco (a three-time winner), Kent Jones, Pat Bates and Lardon.

Colorado resident Chris DiMarco (left) and Pat Bates (right) were among the former PGA Tour regulars who competed at the CC of Colorado on Wednesday.

And leading the way out of all of them at the CC of Colorado was Fitzgerald, the 52-year-old who hit 15 greens in regulation and chalked up five birdies and three bogeys on the day. Fitzgerald’s putter can be problematic at times — he said he’s had the yips since 2013 (“It’s brutal not being able to make a 4-footer”) — but on Wednesday he sank four 4-footers and a 3-footer on the last 10 holes alone.

“I made all my 4- and 5-footers,” he said. “That’s a massive success for me. I feel like I can ball-strike my way around and give rounds away with my putter, but today I didn’t.

“It’s cool,” Fitzgerald said of coming out on top against such a formidable field. “You look at the roster of players, the opportunity to just compete against them in this environment is great. And to be successful is a cherry on top.”

Fitzgerald said it certainly doesn’t hurt that he occasionally plays a Colorado PGA pro-am at the Country Club of Colorado — and that the Lutheran High School boys golf team he coaches usually tees it up in two tournaments at the course each year.

He and Meadow Hills assistant pro Bill Hancock “talk to the boys about strategy out here — patience, and the greens are the defense, and you want to make a million birdies, but this golf course doesn’t give it,” he said. “So it’s cool to preach that stuff, then enact it and just follow that same game plan.”

Guetz, the 2025 Inspirato Colorado Senior Open low amateur, was one of the more steady players on Wednesday, chalking up two birdies, two bogeys and 14 pars for his 71. Begay took a more adventuresome route to the same score, with five birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey.

“It’s a sneaky hard golf course,” said Begay, who works about a dozen tournaments a year as a golf analyst on TV. “You walk it, you look at it, you’re like, ‘OK, generous driving areas, greens aren’t that small.’ But the greens get fast and they’re pitched at an angle that if you’re in the wrong spot of the green, you’re playing defense on them. So trying to get enough sort of offensive looks is probably the key thing. But I missed three greens from the middle of a fairway because of the wind.”

That included 13 and 14, where he went bogey-double bogey “and didn’t miss a shot. That’s when the alarms go off. You’re like, ‘OK, now I’m 1 over and I’ve got four holes left (in the wind). But I think they set the golf course up very fair. It’s a good test.”

Though Begay said that while he’s never competed in a tournament at Scioto Country Club, he and Woods and the rest of the Stanford golf team made a side trip to play a casual round at the course while they were in Columbus for the 1995 NCAA national championships.

Lardon, who likewise had to deal with the wind that picked up in the afternoon on Wednesday, qualified with a 72 after playing his final three holes bogey, par, bogey. He ended up with two birdies and three bogeys overall. One of his birdies came on the 218-yard sixth hole, where he drained a 70-foot putt. “That was a bonus, for sure,” he said.

“It’s been a while (since his last U.S. Senior Open: 2019),” the 61-year-old said. “You never know if you’re going get another one, and my window is closing. I’ve been the first alternate three of the last four years, so this is great.”

Lardon pointed out that this will be his second U.S. Senior Open at Scioto Country Club as he also teed it up there in the 2016 edition.

Lardon, now the PGA director of golf at The Club at Las Campanas in Santa Fe and winner of the 2025 Senior New Mexico Open, has also competed six Senior PGA Championships between 2016 and ’24.

Matt Schalk of Erie, the PGA general manager at Colorado National Golf Club who qualified for the last two U.S. Senior Opens, fell short this time, shooting a 74. Other 2025 qualifiers from the Country Club of Colorado who missed the mark this time were Colorado resident DiMarco (74), former Colorado State University golfer Darrin Overson (76) and Steve Schneiter of Sandy, Utah (76).

This marks the second year that the U.S. Senior Open has featured a two-stage qualifying process. Last year, when that process was instituted, The Broadmoor hosted the championship.

U.S. Senior Open Final Qualifying

At Par-71 CC of Colorado in Colorado Springs

QUALIFIED FOR U.S. SENIOR OPEN

Caine Fitzgerald, Parker 69

Brian Guetz (amateur), Columbine Valley 71

Notah Begay III, Albuquerque 71

Brad Lardon, Santa Fe 72

ALTERNATES (In Order)

Chris Dompier, Marana, Ariz. 73

Jeff Chapman (amateur), Lone Tree 73

For all the scores, CLICK HERE.

About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com